After a great 2.5 week visit home to Raleigh, NC where I was glad to catch up on the lives of my friends from Raleigh Mennonite Church (a few pictured below), SCBWI and the Goalies (a few pictured above,) my old job friends from CAS, my family, and others, I have now returned to the Dominican Republic. After almost another year in the D.R. without a visit home, it was wonderful to see you all, to smell the rain, enjoy the beginning of the fall leaves changing, and wear SWEATSHIRTS & SOCKS - something we rarely do in the D.R. Thanks to every one of you for your continued friendship and continued support in so many ways for my work and life here in Hispaniola! I would feel much farther from home than I actually am if it wasn't for all of yoU keeping in touch!
Upon returning to the D.R. I've been delighted to be greeted by my housemate Julienne, Missionary neighbors Sadrac and Leeann, Co-workers, and this little guy below. He's the one cat we have left from our litter of 5 mommy-less kittens that Julienne and I and our friend Elisabeth from Germany bottle-fed for 5 weeks in July after their mother died. The others have all been parceled out to good homes in our town -- one even went to live at the local veterinarian's office (how lucky for him!) We decided to keep little "Sol" ("Sun" in English -- pictured below) and are enjoying his fuzziness, antics and purring.
Here are a few more photos of life back in the D.R. again!
Above - I'm sitting in Community Health Worker Coordinator Carlito's front yard where we're planning this past week's Community Health Worker Continuing Education class and discussing patients in need of doctor's appointments.
Below - Carlito and his wife Claudia (also a Community Health Worker) are discussing patient's needs in their community of Pancho Mateo.
Their grandson, little Emmanuel, was born at the regional hospital last Christmas and he'll be a year old soon. I think that's probably the best name ever chosen for a Christmas baby.
"God with Us"
He's a great reminder of the 1st Emmanuel celebrated at Christmas after his birth many years ago -- a reminder of what's important as we head toward the Holiday season 2013!
Today I took a new staff member up the sugar cane road
to visit our 4 partner communities .
to visit our 4 partner communities .
To get to our farthest out community, Arroyo de Leche, we had to drive across the river. Luckily the water was very low today otherwise we wouldn't have attempted it. We would have gone up the steeper but dryer road on the other side of the mountain on motorcycles, as we usually do, to get there a different way. :) But no worries. The river was very low today!
On our journey today we visited with 4 of HHI's Community Health Workers in 3 communities, including Dorka (in the purple shirt,) and her teenaged daughter Kaeila. We found them walking down the dirt road in their rural community, Severet, holding a bunch of notebooks. They were on their way to a place across town where they have started a free afterschool tutoring program for 50 children from their community. Dorka, the local pastor's wife, is a Community Health Worker with HHI, a full time high school math teacher, and she and her daughters started the tutoring program on the side (as volunteers) to help the kids in their village do better in school. I really must say that all of my co-workers truly inspire me with their sense of volunteerism, and the way they put aside the fact that they may have worked or volunteered all day already, and have kids of their own to cook for at home, and despite all of the things that they're already doing, and the fact that they're tired, they put others ahead of themselves and volunteer their time to better their communities! It's really very inspiring!
Here's a photo looking down from Dorka's rural community of Severet, looking away toward large Mount Isabel which towers over far away Puerto Plata city, the seat of Provincial government in our region. To the left of the Mountain you can see the line of darker blue just below the sky -- the Atlantic Ocean.
Truly - despite the hard work that we all do here, there are also many advantages to living in the Campo in the Dominican Republic -- not the least of which is the fabulous view!
Huge Thanks for your continued daily prayers for our work and lives here in the Dominican Republic! The notes, Skype-calls, and PRAYERS are always so very much appreciated!
